Many shelving systems exist for displaying or storing items both in the personal and sales arenas. The most conventional method is an open or closed wall book case floor system. With this system, four brackets, typically L-shaped, lock into vertical rails having predetermined vertically spaced holes. A shelf, having a surface area to accommodate the planar surface provided by the brackets is placed on top of the four brackets. While this approach has gained a lot of acceptance in the field of display shelving, its' efficiency and efficacy is limited. With this system, not only does the user lose floor space because of the area that the system occupies, but also effective display space. Since the location of the display shelf is always dependent on the predetermined vertically spaced holes in the rails, there will always be a variable space between the top of the display item and the next shelf. Consequently, the vertical display area provided by the system can not be effectively and efficiently used with respect to varying display items.
To reduce the wasted floor space typical of the above conventional display method, storage or display systems have been developed using brackets supported by slatwall or mounted wall rail assemblies. However, like the above systems, mounted wall assemblies use predetermined rabbet or drilled positions to support the shelving brackets.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,104 by Rosenberg et. al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses one conventional wall display system. With this system, a slat wall hook or platform bracket is supported in a vertical slatwall by a sleeve member placed within the channel region of the slatwall. The sleeve member provides predetermined spaced apart latching means to support the brackets in use. However, as with the above floor display system, this system is limited to the predetermined mounting locations provided by the sleeve member.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,311 by Engstrom, incorporated herein by reference, illustrates a conventional shelf griping bracket for wall display system. Engstrom's bracket is attached to a mounted rail assembly having predetermined spaced apart shelf placement holes. Additionally, the bracket uses a retaining arm for a predetermined shelf thickness to reduce the movement of the shelf. If desired, Engstrom's bracket can receive various predetermined shelf thickness with its' multiple preset top arm structure. However, this system, like the above mentioned systems, still has the problem of effectively positioning the brackets as desired by the user so that the shelf spacing can be as effective as possible for the desired item to be displayed. Furthermore, because the construction of shelves of any material (e.g. glass, plastic, wood, metal, etc.) can vary in thickness, particularly when manufactured in other countries, the preset top arm structure will rarely provide the exact shelf thickness for effectively using the retraining arm of the shelf bracket. Consequently, the retaining arm of the above conventional bracket can only grip shelves that accommodate the predetermined thickness desired for a shelf.
Conventional shelf support systems having fixed shelf positioning locations can rarely provide an efficient and effective shelving structure for displaying items. Thus, it would be advantageous to develop a shelving bracket system in which the only limitation of where a shelf is to be placed is dictated by the size of the bracket or the wall for which the bracket is attached. In addition, it would be advantageous if a developed system could accommodate and clamp materials of any reasonable thickness of manufactured shelving material.